The present invention relates to an expansion bearing assembly for a converter carrying trunnion with a bearing secured to the carrying trunnion and accommodating its angular (sagging) and wobbling movements. The bearing for instance is a slide, articulation, or ball and roller bearing that is axially shiftable on rollers.
In the fields of general engineering and gear making, it is customary to mount a shaft in a fixed bearing on one side and in an expansion bearing on the other side, in order to accommodate thermal expansion and assembly inaccuracies and in order to guarantee smooth operation.
Also in a converter plant, the converter carrying ring is usually mounted with one carrying trunnion in a fixed bearing and with the other in an expansion bearing. For the expansion bearing assembly several embodiments are known, e.g. the assembly according to U.S. Pat. No. 3,291,541, wherein the outer ring is inserted into a saddle-shaped element forming a sliding carriage together with the bearing and the sliding carriage is shiftable upon rollers on two paths at the lower side of the saddle. However, this kind of mounting requires rather a lot of space, because in this bearing construction, in addition to the bearing inset and the bearing housing, a separate gear unit is necessary, which gear unit consists of a drive housing, a spur gear wheel, an intermediate gear and a torque support; all of which have to be heavily built and therefore need a large, strong base. Bearing constructions of this type are unsuited, in particular, in cases where already existent converter plants have to be reconstructed for a larger capacity and housed in already existent hall constructions.